On the 22nd of September, protesters against Manchin's planned fast-track approval of the long-stalled Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) showed up at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). A serious attempt to get up the side of the building by ladder for a banner hang was defeated by police interference but the point was still made.

For years,FERC was known as the oil and gas industry's rubber stamp for eminent domain to support pipeline projects. Manchin is trying to bring those days back for his pet project, the MPV. Dogged, dug-in direct action protesters slowed the project for years with treesits, lockdowns to construction equipment, whatever it takes. Meanwhile brilliantly effective legal teams enmeshed the project in a spider's web of regulatory and lawsuit snarls, eventually running out the duration of FERC's last permit. Protesters are demanding no new permit be issued, which would effectively end the project.